12.18.2010

twas a snow day and i was stuck at home with the dying urge to bake (read: make the house warmer). early on i thought about madeleines, and when i say i thought about madeleines, i mean i obsessed over their cakey french goodness for hours. i went to the kitchen and crumbled in disappointment, no lemons. i may or may not have cried in the fetal position in the corner for a whole minute...as i saw them: those sexy little clementines in my fruit bowl. 'twas done. i knew what i had to do. and i bring forth to you, my lovely reader, the clementine madeleine with almond extract. FRACK these things are good.

2. in a small bowl, rub the clementine zest and sugar together between your fingertips, until sugar is fragrant and moist, set aside

3. in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt

4. in the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sugar and zest, along with eggs. using whisk attachment, beat on medium-high (8) speed, until lighter in color and thick (about 3 mins).

5. beat in almond extract

6. with a silicone/rubber spatula, gently fold in the dry ingredients (i added in 3 steps)

7. once the dry ingredients are fully incorporated, gently fold in the melted butter8. take a piece of saran wrap and press it onto the batter, set batter in fridge for at least 3 hours9. preheat oven to 400F, dollop a small amount of batter into each shell of the pan (try not to overfill, overfill prevents those lovely lady humps from happening)10. bake 8-12 minutes, until edges look a little golden and humps form11. remove tray from oven, remove madeleines and set on rack to cool12. dust with powdered sugar (optional)

12.10.2010

my dad then takes back the package, opens it up, and shares some store-bought maamoul with me. that was one of the first words i learned how to read in arabic as a kid. really the first words i picked up were all either food or cusswords (and i mean DURRTAY cusswords), so typical of a lebanese household.

12.08.2010

as the weather in nyc change from cool to "nowhere to hide" cold, i hazily relive the dog days of summer by remembering what i cooked and what my inspiration was. i remembered cooking a vegetarian dish, with the intention of adding it to our "kinda growing" recipes for our meatless mondays, otherwise known as "mea-mo", which sometimes become "mea-tue", "mea-we" and well, you know. . . marrakesh was an inspiration but i mostly wanted to use the cinnamon, turmeric and cloves that have been gathering dust in the pantry. and, almost perfectly enough, i have this book of vegetarian recipes called "the accidental vegetarian" by simon rimmer that i stumbled upon barnes and noble a few years back.

1. cook the spaghetti in boiling water, i add salt generously in the pot.2. meanwhile, heat the oil in a pan and gently fry the onion and garlic until soft.3. add the tomatoes, cinnamon, cumin and turmeric over a medium heat for about 15-20 minutes until the tomatoes kinda break down.4. season the sauce with salt and pepper and then add the almonds and chickpeas.5. drain the pasta, fold the herbs into the sauce and mix with the pasta.

12.03.2010

know what's cool and hipster-like? not eating pumpkin pie on thanksgiving. now don't get me wrong, i will kill a b*tch for some pumpkin pie. but it's just so booooooooooring to eat it on the day of giving thanks. panna cotta with blueberry lime sauce? WIN.